The National Judicial Education Program
(NJEP)
NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund, in
cooperation with The American Prosecutors Research
Institute
Publication Date: 2001
This part of the Faculty Manual provides detailed instructions for each unit of the curriculum, including format, content, visuals, exercises and worksheets.
Staff needed: Administrative Support Personnel to register participants
Time allotted: Day I: 8:00 to 8:30 a.m. (30 minutes)
Overview: Distribute the "Family Feud" Survey on page 95 to participants. The data from this survey will be used in the unit titled "How to Keep on Keepin' On" at the end of Day II.
Faculty needed: Program Moderator
Time allotted: Day I: 8:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. (30 minutes)
Visuals for unit: Slide is in Appendix 3, Welcome
Special instructions for the faculty: Ask participants to briefly state:
Faculty needed: Program Moderator
Time allotted: Day I: 9:00 to 9:15 a.m. (15 minutes)
Special instructions for the faculty:
Understanding Sexual Violence: Prosecuting Adult Rape and Sexual Assault Cases is an intensive four-day program. The curriculum explores the complex issues arising from a rape case. This curriculum is NOT a typical trial advocacy course. It explores victim impact, current social science research, the latest evidence-collection techniques, medical research, and information about sex offenders to inform and assist in the prosecution of rape and sexual assault cases.
The participants are presented with a case file on day one and, over the course of the curriculum, work through the issues, myths, and stereotypes that it presents. Each unit builds on the information taught in the prior unit. In learning about the complaining witness, the incident, and the issues surrounding the attack, the participants build their case file.
This curriculum uses a combination of teaching techniques: lectures; video presentations; interactive exercises; and large and small group discussions.
Understanding Sexual Violence: Prosecuting Adult Rape and Sexual Assault Cases includes a Resources Book (not available online), Volumes I and II, of studies, articles, checklists, transcripts, websites, and article abstracts which provide the reader with in-depth information about the issues explored during the four-day program. This Resources Book is a valuable asset for any prosecutor?s office. If the reader is presented with a difficult issue just before a trial or at a pre-trial hearing, the Resources Book may provide a number of relevant articles on the issue. During each unit, we will direct you to the relevant materials in your Resources Book.
Faculty needed: Prosecutor Presenter(s)
Format for unit: Small group exercise
Time allotted: Day I: 9:15 to 10:15 a.m. (1 hour)
This exercise is intended to simulate an ADA's first encounter with and assessment of a case. The goal is to generate a wide-ranging discussion about the special challenges that rape myths and the use of alcohol pose for prosecuting these cases, and the importance of interdisciplinary cooperation and building bridges to the other professionals (e.g., police, victim advocates, Sexual Assault Forensic Examiners) who help make a case. The case study introduced here, State v. Michael Cates, will be used and developed throughout the program.
This Faculty Manual contains:
Visuals for unit:
The Participant's binder contains:
Special instructions for the faculty:
The "Ethical Considerations" exercise is intended to provoke discussion about the ethical responsibilities required of each prosecutor in balancing the commitment to enforce the law, protect the community, do justice, represent the state, and prove each element of each offense charged against the defendant beyond a reasonable doubt.
The Faculty Manual contains:
Visuals for unit:
The Participant's Binder contains:
Special instructions for the faculty:
10:15-10:30 Break
Directions: Participants are divided in half. Based on the information in the case file, half the room is assigned to argue the strengths of the case and half to argue the weaknesses.
Use this worksheet to note your assessment of the case, depending on your assignment. Then discuss the case at your table preparatory to a report back and group discussion. Allow 10 minutes for this portion of the exercise.
The reporter is the person at the table whose last name begins with Z or the letter closest to it. If you are the reporter, please use the back of this sheet to take notes during your table?s discussion and to prepare for the report back to the full group. Allow 20 minutes for the report back.
Directions: Take five minutes to jot down your responses to these questions. The prosecutor presenter will ask participants for their answers. Allow 25 minutes for this discussion.
Faculty needed: Victim Impact Expert
Format for unit: Lectures, video and group discussion
Time allotted: Day I: 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (1 hour 30 minutes)
This "Victim Impact - Overview" section is divided into three parts:
This Faculty Manual contains:
Visuals for unit: Slides are in Appendix 5, Victim Impact.
The Participant' Binder contains:
Special instructions for the faculty:
Note that the accounts you will see in this video are somewhat atypical in that some of these victims suffered serious physical injury and/or weapons were used in the attack. Most rape victims do not suffer physical injury and generally weapons are not used. Nonetheless, this is the best video currently available on the impact of nonstranger rape. You can point out to participants that the video is atypical in this one respect.
"Someone You Know" is an intense video that has a strong effect on many viewers. After you stop the video, leave a moment or two of silence to allow it to sink in and let participants collect their thoughts before turning on the lights and beginning the discussion. It is important to allow time for discussion after the video presentation. We have presented this video with and without discussion and found that a discussion much improved the understanding of the issues. For example, the first victim in the video married a year and a half after the rape. She still reports flashbacks, difficulty with her sexual relationship with her husband, and suicidal thoughts and actions. Nevertheless, several judges in a program that did not allow time for discussion said at lunch that they felt the fact that she was able to marry lessened the impact of the trauma. By airing this in discussion, the judges understood more clearly that the marriage was a desperate attempt at normalcy.
In case certain key questions are not asked during the discussion, use the "Cheat Sheet" that follows on page 12 and make the points listed.
The video "Someone You Know" can be order from:
Phoenix Learning Group, Inc.
2349 Chaffee Drive
St. Louis, MO 63146
Phone: (314) 569-0211
Fax: (314) 569-2834
Email:
phoenix@world.att
Cost: $125.00
12:00-1:00 Lunch
The video begins with a voice-over reenactment and printout of the transcript of an actual 911 call. It opens with the female victim screaming that someone is trying to break into her home and continues with her on the line to the police as the man breaks into her home and rapes her. The male narrator of the film points out that most women fear stranger rape, but that "Someone You Know" poses a greater threat, as revealed in the 1985 statistics on reported and unreported stranger and nonstranger rape, which he recites.
This is followed by interviews with 7 women - 5 in their 20s, one about 30, one 50; 6 white, 1 black - who were raped by nonstrangers: a long-term ex-boyfriend, dates, a friend?s brother, and a gang of college students. The women describe the horror of the experience and its indelible impact on their lives. These rapes happened between one and ten years before the film was made, and the women are still traumatized. They have nightmares, flashbacks, great difficulty in trusting any man, constant fears of rape and other symptoms of Rape-Related Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.
The scenes with the rape victims are inter-cut with commentary by the director of the Rape Treatment Center at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center and a leading academic researcher on campus rape. These experts explain that, contrary to common misperceptions, rape by someone you know is not simply about ?bad sex,? but rather a horrible violation in which women feel totally powerless and often fear for their lives.
Stopping the film: Part I of the film does not have a formal end, but the themes clearly switch at this point. Stop the film after approximately 20 minutes (after Gail Abarbanel, Director of the Rape Treatment Center at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center, talks about how striking it is that every rape victim she has seen believed she was confronting death).
If prosecutors in the audience do not raise the following questions about this video, the expert should make the points below:
Victim who married:
The first woman in the film got married a year and a half after the rape. If she was so traumatized, how could she get married? Does that mean she wasn?t really so upset?
Duration of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder:
One of the women in the film said the rape had happened ten years ago and she is still terrified. Is such a long duration of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder unusual?
Level of violence/use of weapons:
You said before the film began that the stories in the film were atypical in that they involved a lot more violence and weapons than is usual. Is the reason these women are so traumatized the fact that they were beaten up and threatened with guns or other weapons?
Faculty needed: Victim Impact Expert
Format for unit: Lecture
Time allotted: Day I: 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. (1 hour)
New brain research demonstrates that traumatic memories are stored and retrieved in different ways than non-traumatic memories, with significant implications for victims? ability to recall and recount.
Visuals for unit:
The Participant's Binder contains:
Special instructions for the faculty:
Faculty needed: Victim Impact Expert
Format for unit: Plenary exercise
Time allotted: Day I: 2:00 to 2:15 p.m.(15 minutes)
Once a person discloses a sexual assault, she or he must give a detailed account of the incident to many people (e.g., friends, family members, police, medical personnel, Crime Victim Advocates and, finally, you). This exercise presents a typical chronology in which a victim must relate this highly personal information to dozens of people in the course of a prosecution.
This Faculty Manual contains:
Special instructions for the faculty:
These are only some of the people the victim will tell about this traumatic experience. Given that the victim must describe her experience to so many people in such different situations, it is understandable that inconsistencies often arise.
After the demonstration part of the exercise there will be approximately ten minutes left to question participants about its implications. Here are suggested questions for the Prosecutor Presenter to choose from.
Faculty needed: Prosecutor Presenter(s),Victim Impact Expert,Victim Advocate
Format for unit: Group discussion and lecture
Time allotted: Day I: 2:15 to 3:30 p.m. (1 hour 15 minutes)
This unit's focus is on the value of eliciting the complaining witness' detailed recollection of the assault (e.g., how she felt during and after; tactile memories of room, floor, etc.) for use at trial. This is especially important in a frozen fright case to allow the jury to understand the victim?s state of mind during the incident. This unit continues to build on what participants have already learned from the case file. What questions would participants ask of complainant in the Cates case?
Visuals for unit: Slides are in Appendix 7, Interviewing the Victim.
The Participant's Binder contains:
Special instructions for the faculty:
Content overview - Tensions in the interviewing process:
These interviews are difficult in that the complainant may be emotionally vulnerable, displacing her anger onto the prosecutor. The prosecutor may be facing the statutory deadline in which to get the information needed to present to a Grand Jury or in a preliminary hearing, in order to get an indictment.
This section explores how a prosecutor can overcome these tensions, in order to maximize the information obtained while minimizing retraumatization. The three faculty needed for this segment address three aspects of this challenge as follows:
Caveat:
Tailor this section to reflect your jurisdiction's procedures. This section is now designed to reflect the needs of jurisdictions dealing with grand jury or preliminary hearing time contraints.
In some jurisdictions, prosecutors do not interview the complainant before charging a case, but rely on the police investigation. This is a potentially problematic practice, in that much can be learned from the complainant regarding what happened during the incident. After interviewing a complainant a prosecutor may decide that different or additional charges should be lodged against the defendant. If this program is presented in a jurisdiction where the prosecutor does not interview the complainant before charging the case there should be a discussion about such a practice.
Special instructions for the faculty - Lecture: Key points for conducting the interview:
Faculty needed: Prosecutor Presenter(s)
Format for unit: Exercise and plenary discussion
A prosecutor must elicit sufficient information before the statutory deadline for a preliminary hearing or Grand Jury presentation to make out a prima facie showing of every element of every crime charged. Often a complainant?s psychological state and negative experience with the criminal justice system make it difficult to elicit this information. This segment uses hypotheticals presenting the complaining witness in three different emotional states to provide prosecutors with ideas for maximizing the information gathered in the initial interview while minimizing retraumatization.
This Faculty Manual contains:
Visuals for unit: Slides are in Appendix 7, Interviewing the Victim
The Participant's Binder contains:
Special instructions for the faculty:
3:30 - 3:45 Break
Hypotheticals
In each of the following hypotheticals assume that:
If you do not meet the statutory time requirement for your jurisdiction, the defendant will be released.
Take 10 minutes to discuss the following three hypotheticals with your tablemates. The faculty presenter will then conduct a plenary discussion for the remaining 20 minutes:
What do you do?
What, if any, new problems does this present for your case?
What interview techniques will you use, given these facts?
The law in your state requires that the complaining witness testify with specificity regarding what is meant by rape. She must testify about the specific sexual conduct, i.e., what body parts touched which body parts.
What strategies would you use to get the information you need to proceed?
Faculty needed: Prosecutor
Format for unit: Small group exercise and plenary discussion
Time allotted: Day I: 3:45 to 4:45 p.m. (1 hour)
This unit focuses on identifying the differences between prosecutors' and victims' backgrounds (e.g., race, class, age, gender, education). We will discuss how these differences can affect prosecutors' and victims' interactions, becoming a barrier to prosecution, and share strategies to overcome these barriers and build trust.
This Faculty Manual contains:
Visuals for unit: Slides are in Appendix 8, Enhancing the Prosecutor/Victim Partnership: Building Trust.
The Participant's Binder contains:
Special instructions for the faculty:
Using what participants have learned from the case file State v. Michael Cates, and the additional facts about Complaining Witness Amanda Brown revealed on the worksheet for this exercise, address the issues of:
The second part of this exercise is devoted to expanding the discussion to talk about challenges and strategies generally. It consists of a table discussion and a report back based on three hypotheticals.
4:45 - 4:50 Break
Directions: Below are some facts you have already learned about complaining witness Amanda Brown and some additional facts. Take five minutes to discuss the questions below with your tablemates and complete the worksheet. The reporter will be the individual whose last name is closest to the letter L, who was not a reporter from an earlier exercise.
Facts
Amanda Brown is a 19-year-old college sophomore. She is black, 5'1' and 105 pounds. She won an academic scholarship to the university she and the defendant attended. She maintained a 4.0 GPA. She and the defendant were both members of the drama club.
Ms. Brown is a first generation American. Both of her parents emigrated from Jamaica. The Browns do not believe in bringing their "troubles" to government agencies. They do not trust the police or the criminal justice system. They have seen how the police treat other members of their community. The Browns are strict Catholics and brought up Amanda and their other children in the Church. Amanda herself is a very devout Catholic.
Directions: Take 15 minutes to discuss the three hypotheticals below with your tablemates and complete the worksheet. Develop strategies to establish a trusting partnership with the complainant. Use your prior experience and what you have learned thus far in the training to develop these strategies. The reporter will be the individual who acted as the reporter in the prior "Building Trust with Amanda Brown" exercise.
If during the report back participants are unable to think of any strategies to overcome potential problems, the prosecutor presenter may use the points below to start the discussion.
Respect is the key to building trust in each of these hypotheticals.
Keep in mind difficulties prosecutors may encounter with the jury and any fears the victim may have about being "judged by the jury."
Deaf Victim
Lesbian Victim
Uneducated Victim
Faculty needed: Prosecutor Presenter(s)
Format for unit: Small group exercise
Time allotted: Day I: 4:50 to 5:35 p.m. (45 minutes)
Complaining witnesses are often reluctant to reveal facts that would cast them in a poor light, but prosecutors must have this information to avoid being blindsided at trial. This exercise explores techniques to elicit these important (though unfavorable) facts from the complaining witness, while building rapport.
This Faculty Manual contains:
The Participant's Binder contains:
Special instructions for the faculty:
After this exercise, participants receive "The full story," which provides more detail than the case file.
Directions: At each table the prosecutor whose last name begins with the letter M or the letter closest to it plays the complaining witness in State v. Michael Cates. She is very reluctant to disclose anything beyond what is already known from the case file and initial interview. However, there are four important undisclosed facts about the rape that the prosecutors must elicit. The prosecutor presenter assigns one of these undisclosed facts to the complaining witness at each table.
Each complaining witness leaves the table for 5 minutes while the other prosecutors caucus to discuss their interviewing strategies and develop a set of questions. The prosecutor to the immediate left of the prosecutor playing the complaining witness uses these and other questions to conduct the interview for 10 minutes.
Listed below are facts that for a variety of reasons have not yet been disclosed in our model case. They are unpleasant facts, or facts that the complainant believes will hurt her credibility or hurt the case if she tells. If the complainant is asked a direct or effectively probing question about any of these facts she must respond. Otherwise, make the interlocutor work for the information. After 15 minutes, the prosecutor presenter asks the complaining witness at each table to tell whether the questioner was able to elicit the assigned fact and how he or she did it, and puts the facts on a flip chart. The complaining witness should also be asked how the questioner did and whether any of the questions felt unnecessarily insensitive or inappropriate. The faculty will then comment on effective interviewing techniques.
The undisclosed facts
Directions: At each table the prosecutor whose last name begins with the letter closest to the letter M plays the complaining witness, who is very reluctant to disclose anything beyond what you already know from the case file and initial interview.
The complaining witness leaves the table for 5 minutes while the other prosecutors caucus to discuss their interviewing strategies and develop a set of questions. Whoever is seated to the immediate left of the complaining witness uses these and other questions to conduct the interview for 10 minutes. After 15 minutes, the moderator asks the complaining witness at each table to tell whether the questioner was able to elicit the assigned fact and how he or she did it, and puts the fact on a flip chart. The complaining witness should also be asked how the questioner did and whether any of the questions felt unnecessarily insensitive or inappropriate. The faculty will then comment on effective interviewing techniques. Allow 15 minutes for this discussion.
Note your suggested questions below:
Directions: At each table the prosecutor whose last name begins with the letter closest to the letter M plays the complaining witness in State v. Michael Cates, who is very reluctant to disclose anything beyond what is already known from the case file and initial interview. The prosecutor presenter will assign one undisclosed fact to each complaining witness.
The complaining witnesses leave their table for 5 minutes while the other prosecutors caucus to discuss their interviewing strategies and develop a set of questions. The prosecutor to the immediate left of the prosecutor playing the complaining witness uses these and other questions to conduct the interview for 10 minutes.
Listed below are facts that for a variety of reasons you have not yet disclosed in our model case. They are unpleasant facts, or facts that you believe will hurt your credibility or hurt the case if you tell. If you, as the complainant, are asked a direct or effectively probing question about any of these facts you must respond. Otherwise, make your interlocutor work for the information.
Listed below are the four undisclosed facts. After 15 minutes, the prosecutor presenter will ask the complaining witness at each table to tell whether the question was able to elicit the assigned fact and how he or she did it, and will put the facts on a flip chart. The faculty will then comment on effective interviewing techniques. The complaining witness should also be asked how the questioner did and whether any if the questions felt unnecessarily insensitive or in appropriate.
The undisclosed facts
On or about Dec. 15, 1999, both the Complaining Witness, Amanda Brown, and the Defendant, Michael Cates, who are members of their school's drama club, were at a rehearsal. The rehearsal ended at about 10:30 p.m.. Cates, who was friendly with Ms. Brown, offered to drive her home. He said that it would be safer than taking public transportation. Amanda Brown accepted the ride. She had known Michael Cates for about a year. He was a polite, well-mannered young man. She had a little crush on him. Amanda Brown got into Cates' car. Cates looked at the dashboard and said he needed to get gas. He then said he needed to get his gas credit card from his room. He asked her to come up to his dorm room, which she did.
Cates took off his coat and asked her to do the same. She thought this was odd, but did not want to be rude. Ms. Brown took off her coat. She said that she needed to get home or her parents would worry. Then Cates offered her an alcoholic beverage, i.e., rum and coke. They both drank. Ms. Brown mentioned leaving again, but Cates assured her that they would leave in a minute. She eventually drank two rum and cokes. Both Amanda Brown and Cates smoked a joint. Ms. Brown had smoked pot on two prior occasions. Ms. Brown and Cates were sitting on the bed in his dorm room. They began making out. Cates put his hands on Amanda Brown's breasts and tried to unclasp her bra. Ms. Brown told Cates to stop. She struggled with Cates. Cates said, "You know you want it, that's why you are here." He pulled her sweater over her head. Cates pushed Amanda Brown down onto the bed and got on top of her. She repeatedly told him to stop and said, "Why are you doing this? I want you to stop. I am serious, stop." As Ms. Brown struggled with Cates, she broke a fingernail to the quick. Amanda Brown then noticed that Cates' demeanor changed. He looked angry and she thought he would explode with rage. Cates pushed up her skirt and removed her underwear. As he pulled down her underwear, the watch that he wore dragged across Ms. Brown?s upper thigh and caused an abrasion. He held her arms above her head and put his knees between her legs, forcing them apart. He touched her vagina. He then inserted his penis into her vagina. Amanda Brown cried.
When Cates was finished he got off of Ms. Brown. He got dressed. Ms. Brown put her clothes on. She did not say anything. He then drove her home.
The next day, when Amanda Brown finally woke up, she was bewildered and angry about what Michael Cates had done to her. She called his home to confront him. A woman answered the telephone. She told Ms. Brown that Cates was not home, but she would take a message. Ms. Brown left her name and phone number.
Ten days after the incident, Amanda Brown went to her own doctor, who has known her all of her life. She wanted to make sure that Cates did not give her any STDs. Ms. Brown did not tell the doctor she was raped. The doctor found no physical injury or disease, but noted that Ms. Brown's depressed demeanor was very different from prior visits when she was lively and engaged.
Over the next few months, Amanda Brown experienced depression, lack of interest in life and mood swings. She slept for long periods of time, seldom left her room, missed classes and dropped out of the drama club. Her grades slipped, and she gained weight.
About two months after the incident, Amanda Brown had an argument with a close friend who was attempting to get her to come out of her room and attend a concert. During the argument, Ms. Brown blurted out that she'd been raped by Michael Cates, and that was why she did not want to go out. The friend urged Ms. Brown to report the incident. Ms. Brown called the police and a uniform officer took the initial report from her. Amanda Brown then spoke with a Special Victims Squad Detective.
Amanda Brown is a 19-year-old college sophomore. She won an academic scholarship to the university she and the defendant attended. Before the rape she maintained a 4.0 GPA. She and the defendant were both members of the drama club. Ms. Brown is 5"1' tall and weighed 105 pounds at the time of the attack.
Ms. Brown is a first generation American; both of her parents emigrated from Jamaica. The Browns do not believe in bringing their "troubles" to government agencies. They do not trust the police or the criminal justice system. They have seen how the police treat other members of their community. The Browns are strict Catholics and brought up Amanda and their other children in the Church. Amanda herself is a very devout Catholic.
Michael Cates is a 20-year-old white college junior. He is from a middle class working family. They own a one-family suburban home. He is an average student. The defendant is 6"2', muscular and weighs 195 pounds.
Facts
Challenging facts
Special instructions for faculty
Day I ends here. Be sure that participants have completed and turned in their daily evaluations.
Conclusion Day I
This document was not developed by Violence Against Women Online Resources. The document's author or sponsoring organization granted VAWOR permission for placement on this site. Points of view in this document are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.
This web site is a cooperative project of Office on Violence Against Women and Minnesota Center Against Violence & Abuse at the University of Minnesota and is supported by grant number 2004-WT-AX-K075 awarded by the Office on Violence Against Women, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice.
Additional information about this site can be obtained by reading Email us for more information and assistance.
©Copyright 1998-2005 Minnesota Center Against Violence and Abuse (MINCAVA)
File Last Modified on: 48